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By Matt Byrne, Town Correspondent

In the latest effort to restructure the City of Malden’s financial apparatus, Ward 1 Councilor Gary Christenson outlined a compromise that would keep the hotly debated appointing authority over key finance officers with the city council, while still centralizing oversight of the city’s finances in a new top finance job.

Christenson’s plan, outlined in a memo to the council Tuesday, would convert the treasurer position to a chief financial officer, who would manage day-to-day financial operations, play a key role in formulating the city budget with the Mayor’s direction, and orchestrate long-range financial planning.

“I have spoken with the administration about this potential agreement and the indicationsare that the mayor [Richard C. Howard] will sign the compromise if it is voted out by the city council,” Christenson wrote.

The move is similar to the previous effort, and would also change term
requirements, making the new CFO position -- as well as the Controller
-- three-year appointments, down from five-year terms. Christenson’s
plan also provides provisions for the CFO’s removal by the mayor, a
section absent from previous drafts, and a point of contention during a
legal evaluation of the proposal.

The overture to compromise
comes after contentious debate when councilors drafted the first CFO
paper during months of finance committee deliberation. During those
talks, appointment authority was a key sticking point for Councilor at
Large Deborah Fallon, who was the lone dissenting vote against the plan
when it was voted out of committee.

During talks the at-large
councilor said that shifting appointing authority of the CFO, assessor,
and collector -- currently held by the city council – would signal the
council’s abandonment checks-and-balances responsibilities, she said.

Much
of the disagreement over the CFO plan circles around an April 19 legal
opinion by city Solicitor Kathryn M. Fallon, in which she strongly
recommended the council retain all appointing authority, and suggested
changes to the proposal so that the new structure would not contradict
state laws.

Kathryn Fallon is Deborah Fallon’s sister.

That
opinion, coupled with indications in committee of wavering support on
the wider council if the plan were to come to a vote, left the long
sought-after restructuring largely in the lurch, with councilor Neil C.
Kinnon calling for an impartial reading of the proposal after Fallon’s
opinion was issued.

Kathryn Fallon, meanwhile has said her opinion was “recitation of the law,” and nothing more.

To
pass, the CFO rules need the support of eight of the 11 councilors – a
two-thirds majority – before the mayor would have a chance to sign off
on them. Because the changes require altering the city’s charter, the
paper would be filed in a home rule petition to the state legislature
for the thumbs-up. Then it would need the signature of Governor Deval
Patrick before becoming local statute.

The push to reform
oversight began in 2008, after authorities arrested an employee in the
city treasurer's office who embezzled more than $500,000 from Malden
coffers. Gia Marie DeSantis pleaded guilty to the charges.

Following
the public disclosure and investigation of the theft, Mayor Richard C.
Howard vowed to correct "any deficiencies" in the financial process in
Malden, he said in a November 2008 statement.

The measure nearly
came to the floor for a vote last month, but was stalled when Fallon
handed up the opinion hours before the council meeting. The measure has
languished in the finance committee ever since while councilors regroup
for a push to pass it.